Rapid Micro Methods News

Our news pages will keep you informed of press releases and news articles on RMM technologies, updates from technology suppliers, reviews of recent publications and presentations, and what's changing in the world of rapid methods. You can also follow our news posts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and RSS.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., have announced the European launch of Enterolert®-DW for the detection of Enterococci bacteria in drinking water. The new test exceeds both the speed and the accuracy of conventional testing methods. European regulations require testing for enterococci in drinking water, as well as for coliforms and E. coli. All are indicators of possible water contamination that could pose a health risk to humans. The Enterolert-DW test provides results in just 24 hours, compared to the two days needed for conventional testing.

The new method includes ready-to-use reagents and requires only one minute of hands-on time, making it easier to use when compared to the conventional testing method (ISO 7899-2, also known as the “Slanetz and Bartley method”). The conventional method requires a technician to filter the water through a membrane, place the membrane on an agar plate to grow the bacteria for 2 days, transfer the membrane to another agar plate for confirmation, and then count bacterial colonies.

The Enterolert-DW test uses the same equipment and test procedure as the popular IDEXX Colilert®-18 water test for coliforms and E. coli. This means that laboratories and public utilities can now use a single platform for all their key microbial drinking-water tests and produce accurate and complete drinking water test results in just 24 hours.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Part of the Techne range of personal thermal cyclers from Bibby Scientific, the TC-3000G gradient model offers two interchangeable block options, a gradient of up to 15ºC, an exceptionally wide choice of consumables, fast-track programming and networking capability. All these features and more are contained within a 17 x 33 cm footprint, making this the world's smallest gradient thermal cycler. The TC-3000G gradient thermal cycler's 48-well thermal block is arranged to provide eight columns for testing eight different temperatures simultaneously, and six rows for optimising reagents such as MgCl2 and primer concentrations. The alternative thermal block option holds 30 x 0.5 ml tubes - significantly more than the usual 12 or 20 tubes of this size.

The TC-3000G has been designed to hold half a 96-well plate in a horizontal format, so that a wider range of temperatures can be applied and any protocol optimised within a single experiment. The latest software enables a gradient to be added to any temperature step of the program. The heated lid of the TC-3000G is temperature selectable and also fully height-adjustable. This feature gives users the widest possible choice of consumables, including Techne's 24 and 48-well plates and 8-tube strips, adding to the unit's versatility. Operation of the TC-3000G is intuitive, with speed dial functionality allowing fast program location. The gradient calculator function displays the temperature for each of the eight columns, ensuring easy replication of thermal conditions. Annealing temperatures, at which primers bind to DNA templates, can be optimised over a 15 °C gradient between 20 and 80 °C, and the heating rate of 3.3 °C per second is the fastest of all 48-well cyclers in the market, including gradient units. Utilising the USB connection, one standalone unit or up to 32 cyclers networked together can be controlled by Techne's free Gensoft PC software.

bioMérieux have announced that VIDAS® Listeria Xpress (LSX), an automated test for the fast detection of Listeria species, has been granted Official Methods of Analysis (OMA) approval by AOAC INTERNATIONAL on a wide variety of food products. This added level of certification assures VIDAS LSX users that the test meets stringent AOAC standards for excellence in pathogen detection. As part of the VIDAS Next Day range, VIDAS LSX has previously received AOAC-RI (Research Institute) validation for food production environmental samples, and is certified by AFNOR Validation according to the ISO 16140 standard. bioMérieux's expertise in both immunoassays and microbiology resulted in the creation of a high performance solution to detect Listeria species in less than 30 hours, faster than most of the other automated methods. For this test, bioMérieux developed a specific enrichment broth (LX broth) to boost the growth of Listeria species.

MOCON, Inc. is introducing a new screening system for same-day bacterial detection in food. The new GreenLight™ series significantly reduces the testing time and labor needed to determine aerobic bacterial counts in meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, produce, etc. Processors and packers get accurate results and improve speed to market in a cost-effective manner.

The GreenLight™ series provides a total viable count (TVC) or aerobic plate count (APC) of a food sample´s microbial load by using a sensing assay or vial. As bacteria in the test sample multiply and respire, they consume oxygen. The change in oxygen is used to calculate the original sample´s colony forming units per gram (cfu/g) for solids or per milliliter for liquids.

The development of this new, leading-edge technology has been made possible via MOCON´s investment in Luxcel Biosciences Limited (Luxcel), Cork, Ireland, which was announced earlier this year. At the time, MOCON stated that as part of its initial post-investment activity, it would dedicate some of its research and development resources to help bring a high-throughput pathogen (Listeria, Salmonella, E. coli, etc.) screening process to the food industry. The GreenLight™ series is part of that initiative.

The GreenLight™ series is making its debut with two models—the 910 and 960. The Model 910 is compact and easy to use. It targets smaller labs and processing areas. The Model 960 has been designed for larger labs which require higher throughput. The system is extremely flexible and utilizes a standard plate reader format which can be automated. It can test 96 or 384 well plates in either a pass/fail or absolute mode. The Model 960 has a throughput potential of 1 to 384 absolute tests in one day.

NanoLogix, Inc. have introduced the new Quick-Test product line for detection and identification of aerobic live-cell bacteria. With the NanoLogix Quick-Tests, the research community will be able to obtain high-sensitivity analysis results in reduced time with lower costs than traditional technologies. The new NanoLogix Quick Test product line complements the Company´s existing BNP and BNF membrane and filtration technologies with a projected market of medical laboratories, food and beverage producers, pharmaceutical, university and other institutional users.

The NanoLogix Quick-Tests detect and identify a multitude of live-cell bacteria, such as E.coli, Salmonella, and Listeria, with the additional capability of rapid identification of yeasts. After a shortened incubation period the ultra thin membrane is transferred to a staining plate where micro-colonies become visible after capillary action through the membrane brings the staining agent into contact with the micro-colonies. The results can be obtained in as little as a quarter of the time of conventional methods, in concentrations potentially as small as a single cell.

Each Quick-Test kit is designed to provide results for fifty individual tests of the targeted bacteria and each test kit is identified by the name of that specific bacteria, e.g., E.coli Quick-Test , Salmonella Quick-Test, etc. NanoLogix currently has Quick Tests available for E.coli, Salmonella, and Listeria with additional bacteria Quick-Tests available upon request.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

BJS Biotechnologies is launching its new rapid next-generation thermal cycler, UF1, at Biotechnica 2010, in Hannover, Germany (5-7 October 2010). UF1 increases the speed of DNA amplification by up to ten-fold, opening up opportunities for the use of PCR in Point-of-Care diagnosis. Thermal cyclers raise and lower the temperature in PCR, breaking the DNA strands apart and promoting DNA replication. These traditionally use a heat exchange block to warm and cool DNA samples in plastic tubes or microtitre plates, but this can result in slow and uneven temperature changes, and exact temperature control is vital for fast and efficient DNA amplification and accurate and consistent results.

The UF1 thermal cycler uses a low-cost single-use, recyclable consumable that combines the microtitre plate, heat exchange block, and attached heaters. This puts the DNA samples in direct contact with the heating element, resulting in rapid and controlled temperature changes, at up to seven cycles per minute. The disposable plate is simple to use, decreasing user error, eliminates the time and cost involved in cleaning, as well as reduces the risk of cross-sample contamination. “Current real-time PCR thermal cyclers are both expensive and slow. We developed the technology because we had become frustrated with the limited power and heat, as well as the lack of thermal uniformity, from cyclers using the Peltier effect devices,” says Ian Gunter, R&D Director, BJS Biotechnologies.

“UF1 provides reliable and reproducible results within five to six minutes, compared with one to two hours for thermal cyclers that rely on heat exchange. This means that one machine could do the work of ten, freeing up bench space and increasing laboratory productivity,” says Richard Lewis, Managing Director, BJS Biotechnologies. UF1’s process speed means that it has potential in situations needing rapid diagnoses, for example at Point-of-Care in epidemics such as foot & mouth or swine flu, or for detecting MRSA infections in hospital A&E settings. Other applications could include biopsies, identification of water-borne disease, detection of micro-organisms in biological warfare or bio-terrorism, and tracking contamination in the food manufacturing industry, as well as pharmacogenomics in personalised medicine. BJS Biotechnologies is in discussion with a number of European distributors, and UF1 will be rolled out across Europe in early 2011, beginning in the UK.

Micro Identification Technologies, Inc. will conduct a Webinar later this month on the operation of the MIT 1000 Rapid Microbial Identification System. The objective of the Webinar is to demonstrate the speed and operational simplicity of performing bacteria identification (ID) tests using the MIT 1000 System and to give a brief education on the non-biological light scattering technology that is used to obtain an ID. The Webinar will be conducted by MIT's Chief Technical Officer, Dr. David Haavig and will be open to all of those interested in learning more about the Company's System. "Using our patented light scattering technology for this application only became economically feasible with the creation of high speed personal computers that are needed to compile and analyze the vast amount of data collected in the ID process.

The Webinar will highlight our unique ability to conduct an ID test in less than 5 minutes at a cost of 10 cents per test. These attributes position MIT to contribute significantly to the fight against widespread food contamination events," stated Michael Brennan, MIT's Chairman and CEO. MIT has demonstrated the ability to detect and identify, within several minutes, the microbes Escherichia coli, Listeria, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, and other pathogenic bacteria. MIT has performed over 300 tests for the identification of the aforementioned contaminants and scored 95% accuracy. The System can currently identify 23 species of bacteria and is easily expandable. The identification process has been verified by North American Science Associates, Inc. (NAMSA), an independent, internationally recognized biological testing laboratory.

BJS Biotechnologies has launched its new rapid next-generation thermal cycler, UF1. UF1 increases the speed of DNA amplification by up to ten-fold, opening up opportunities for the use of PCR in Point-of-Care diagnosis. Thermal cyclers raise and lower the temperature in PCR, breaking the DNA strands apart and promoting DNA replication. These traditionally use a heat exchange block to warm and cool DNA samples in plastic tubes or microtitre plates, but this can result in slow and uneven temperature changes, and exact temperature control is vital for fast and efficient DNA amplification and accurate and consistent results. The UF1 thermal cycler uses a low-cost single-use, recyclable consumable that combines the microtitre plate, heat exchange block, and attached heaters. This puts the DNA samples in direct contact with the heating element, resulting in rapid and controlled temperature changes, at up to seven cycles per minute. The disposable plate is simple to use, decreasing user error, eliminates the time and cost involved in cleaning, as well as reduces the risk of cross-sample contamination. UF1 provides reliable and reproducible results within five to six minutes, compared with one to two hours for thermal cyclers that rely on heat exchange. This means that one machine could do the work of ten, freeing up bench space and increasing laboratory productivity.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), and Bruker Daltonics Inc., a subsidiary of Bruker Corporation, announced an international co-development and co-marketing collaboration that will promote an emerging, integrated approach to bacterial and fungal identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. This new approach has the potential to transform how traditional microbiology has been performed for decades. Through this collaboration, identification of microorganisms will be performed with the Bruker MALDI Biotyper, a mass spectrometry-based proteomic "fingerprinting" system specifically configured for rapid identification of bacteria, yeast and fungi. The MALDI Biotyper is available in a clinical version with IVD-CE mark in Europe and is for research use only (RUO) in the United States, where Bruker intends to seek FDA clearance.

BD and Bruker intend to combine the MALDI Biotyper microbial ID system with automated antimicrobial susceptibility testing on the BD Phoenix(TM) Microbiology System. The BD EpiCenter(TM) Microbiology Data Management System, which will manage patient data from both the identification and the susceptibility test systems, will facilitate this industry-first integrated approach. The MALDI Biotyper -- BD EpiCenter software integration will be further developed to optimize workflows for rapid MALDI Biotyper pathogen identification directly on positive blood cultures from the leading BD BACTEC(TM) blood culture system. This rapid blood culture-to-ID workflow is supported by Bruker's new MALDI Sepsityper® consumables kit, which today is for RUO. It is expected to become clinically important in the future, as time-to-result for pathogen identification is critical to management of patients having potentially serious bloodstream infections or sepsis. Microbial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing is the end-point of the major work a microbiology lab performs on a daily basis. After culturing and isolating bacteria and fungi from patient specimens, organisms need to be identified and tested to determine which drugs will inhibit or stop their growth.

The Bruker MALDI Biotyper allows highly accurate, rapid and cost-effective identification through a process in which organisms are identified by the unique spectrum of the major proteins and peptides that constitute their makeup. The accuracy and benefits of the MALDI Biotyper have been well documented in over 30 peer-reviewed articles. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing is conducted via traditional automated systems such as the BD Phoenix System. The combination of the two leading technologies, the BD Phoenix System and the MALDI Biotyper, and the data management through the BD EpiCenter System, will provide laboratorians with a groundbreaking new approach to identification and susceptibility testing, which will reduce the turnaround time for critical diagnostic results, while also improving laboratory efficiency and costs.